Some Exciting News

I haven't posted for about two weeks, or longer... but I haven't exactly been feeling so great for the past few weeks... not because I have a cold or the flu, but because sometime around June of next year, we'll have an addition to our little family, that's right, I am.... PREGNANT!!!

I'm just a little over 12 weeks... at 6 weeks, I had my first appointment and the Doc could see the baby's heart beat, way cool! Then yesterday I went to another appointment, and we got to hear the baby's heart beat, 163 BPM, coolest thing ever!

We couldn't be more excited, this is what we have been praying for and wanting for a really long time! I haven't been THAT sick, there are days that are rougher than others, but I really can't complain, I've been able to work and go to church and do all of my YW stuff, we've been really blessed.

Coolest story about how we told our parents: We went to Babies R' Us, and they had little frame ornaments that say "Best Christmas Gift Ever" on them, and then you put a picture of the sonogram in it. We bought two, one for Tyson's mom, and one for my parents, and wrapped them up like a cute little Christmas present. Thanksgiving morning, we went up to Tyson's mom's house early, and had breakfast with her, just the three of us. We gave her the gift and told her it was an early Christmas surprise. She opened up the box, and just stared at the little picture, looked up at me, and said, "Are you??!!" And we said, "YES!" And she started dancing around the kitchen, hugging, and crying, it was awesome!

We ate Thanksgiving with Bonnie and the some of Tyson's family around 1 PM, and then hopped in the truck and drove out to Vernal to spend the rest of the weekend with my family. They were waiting, very patiently, for us to arrive so we could have Thanksgiving dinner together, so right when we walked in, they wanted to get started eating... I handed the little present to my mom and dad and said open this together, its a special Christmas surprise. They had NO CLUE! They opened it, and stared, and my mom then said, "Are you??!!" And we said, "YES!" My mom hugged me so tight and was crying and my dad still had no clue what was going on, he didn't know what the picture was of, he said, "Why is everyone so excited about this little picture of a tornado?" :) We told him he's going to be a grandpa, and then it set in... it was again, a very awesome reaction to our exciting news!

The doctor said everything is going really well, I actually lost a little weight during this first 12 weeks, and the baby has a very strong heartbeat and is measuring perfect. I have a history of heart problems from my side of the fam, so they are going to do the ultrasound at the new IMC hospital in Murray. Tys knows its a little girl without a doubt, I am not so certain either way. Sometimes I just know its a boy, or get the overwhelming feeling that its a little girl, but we are excited either way! We are going to Costa Rica when I'll be 19 weeks, so the day after we get home, we have our ultrasound and find out what we are having... very exciting!

I know this is a long post... but I hope you are all enjoying this Christmas season, its been snowing every day out here and its definitely going to be a beautiful white Christmas. Since I've been sick, I haven't really had time to get caught up in the Christmas rush, and I must admit, its been really nice. Saturday I made granola for friends and neighbors, and tonight we are taking a homemade coconut cream pie and homemade eggnog out to our boss and his wife to share our exciting news. I love this time of year, and I feel like this new little life has already brought more love into our home. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and can feel the love of our Savior and Lord. Love, Dani (PS: I'll post some pictures soon, I'm starting to get a little bump :) I just forgot my SD card)

Every Little Bit Helps

We have a tradition every year to go and purchase a cart load of turkeys and give them to the food bank. Our parents always do the dinner for us, and we contribute a side dish, so we never need to spend much money on Thanksgiving Dinner.

This year, our boss gave each employee a $50 gift card to Smith's. Again, not having any need to buy a turkey for us, we asked our bishop if there was any need in our ward. He said that there are a few families that are really struggling, lost their jobs, one is waiting for a new heart, and times are rough, any help we could offer would be appreciated. We decided to take our gift cards, since we each got one, and bought a full Thanksgiving dinner for three families in our ward. Smith's just happened to have Norbist turkeys on sale for $8, but limit to one per customer. When we went to check out, and the cashier said she could only do one of the three turkeys for $8, and would have to charge full price (around $30 each) for the other two. We needed three, so that was fine.

The turkeys wouldn't ring up at all. The line was really starting to build up behind us, so she just decided to give each turkey to us at the $8 sale price... little miracles, maybe her heart was touched, I don't know, but we bought 3 turkeys, 3 bags of potatoes, 3 gravy mixes, 3 boxes of stuffing, 3 cans of cranberry, 6 cans of yams, 3 bags of marshmellows, and 3 pies for $87.00!

We even had $13 left over...

We took the groceries over to our bishop, and that following Sunday, he came to us and said that as he was driving to one of the members' homes, he felt prompted to go to a different house than he originally planned. When he gave them the food items, they said that they were praying for something to happen, they were going to be short on money for Thanksgiving Dinner this year.

Can I just say how truly blessed we are... My heart was touched by the spirit after hearing this from our bishop, and I cried throughout sacrament meeting. This is such a special time of year to reach out and help others around you. I feel blessings from heaven pour down on us every single day, hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We're heading to V-town after we eat with Tyson's fam in the city. Love, Dani

TAG - 7's

I haven't had much to blog about lately, just been super busy as always, so thanks Shalisa for tagging me!

7 things I can do:
1. I can play the piano
2. I can speak in sacrament, teach the entire YW, and have a 2 hour pres. meeting after church all in the same day
3. I can fall asleep on the couch every night by 8:00 PM
4. I can talk to my sister on the phone for hours
5. I can have something going on of every night of the week on a regular basis
6. I can scrapbook, when I have time
7. I can sit on a plane for 16 1/2 hours and not get freaked out

7 things I can't do:
1. I can't wait for Thanksgiving, I get to see my family!
2. I can't wait for this day to be over so I can fall asleep on the couch again
3. I can't stand leaks in our roof, NO FUN!
4. I can't believe how lucky I am to have Tyson as my sweetheart
5. I can't find time to do the things I love
6. I can't wait to go to Costa Rica in February
7. I can't wait to finish the basement in our house (its scary right now)

7 things that attracted me to Tyson:
1. His outgoing personality, he is nice to everyone
2. His genuine love for me
3. His ability to make me HAPPY
4. His power to hold the Priesthood
5. His ability to speak Chinese, I love hearing him speak Chinese
6. His strong work ethic, he is not afraid to get his hands dirty
7. His kind heart, he is a great example to me

7 things that I say most often:
1. Love You Dear
2. What do you want for dinner
3. Say hi to Rooks for me
4. I love my job, I love my job, I love my job
5. I'm just really busy right now
6. Sure, I can do that
7. and that, and that too!

7 favorite foods:
1. Chicken Tica Masala and Oloo Gobi Veggies from Bombay House
2. Veggie Tacos at Chipotle
3. Shrimp Tacos at Cabo Grill
4. Strawberry Whirl from Jamba
5. Homemade Granola
6. Breakfast Burritos (made at home)
7. Fresh Seafood

7 celebrity admirations
1. President Monsen
2. Brad Paisley
3. Oprah Whinfrey
4. Shi LaBeouf
5. Jewel
6. U2
7. Condoleeza Rice

7 people I tag:
1. Nichole W.
2. Brandi
3. Tralina
4. Whitney
5. Liberti
6. Rosanne
7. Amanda C & G

PRIVATE IN A FEW

I'm going to give it another few days, and then, I'm going private. I watched a report on KSL, and it did freak me out a little... I just don't want it to cause any REAL problems, and I feel like this a precaution that I can take... I'll probably make the switch by the end of the week... If you want to be added, and you already haven't left a comment or sent an email, please do in the next few days... Thanks, Dani

HOME MADE GOODNESS

Can I just say YUM! I have the best recipe for homemade granola... and it is so so so good!!! There is no sugar, its made with honey, and I changed up the recipe a little and substituted olive oil for vegetable oil, its much better for you. I also added extra cashews... Yummy Stuff!

I'm totally not used to cooking with gas, and at our new house, the dryer and stove are both gas. Normally, two hours at 225 F is just right, but it still was gooey after 2 1/2 hours of cooking. We put it back in for an hour and a half at 300 F, and it was just right...

I'm working on perfecting it, I'm going to give this out at Christmas to friends, neighbors, ward members, my boss... etc... This will be a tasty and healthy treat to snack on, there is already too much sweet stuff around the holidays!

A guy that we work with wants to buy it from me, for the last forty years of his life, he has eaten mush for breakfast, I don't know what mush is, but this stuff is way better ! :)

LETTER FROM A CHRISTIAN - THE YEAR 2012

I recieved an email from my sister-in-law, Tralina. The email contained a link to a letter written by a Christian in the year 2012. It is written very well, and hits on some key issues in this upcoming election, which is just a week from tomorrow. It is 16 pages long, but take the time to read it... I don't think I have taken the time and considered the true costs of legalizing homosexuality...

This letter makes you think again...

http://focusfamaction.edgeboss.net/download/focusfamaction/pdfs/10-22-08_2012letter.pdf

SOME MORE BEFORE AND AFTER HOUSE PICS

I've finally been able to hang some things on the wall and finish putting in new light switches, so here are more "before and after" pictures of our work in progress, sorry, this is kind of long, but most pictures:

The Entry Way

Before:

After:

The Entry Way had physadelic wall paper, that was more like fabric glued on the wall, nasty carpet at the entry and the stairs going to the basement, a crusty little globe light with gold feathering, a cast iron banister with hearts, yes, hearts, and glass tiling that had gold spider web etched in it, I know, you're jealous huh :)

We ripped down the fibrous wall paper, peeled up the glass tiles, my mom used a wrench for hours unscrewing the banister, and we ripped up the carpet. My cousin textured the wall that had the wall paper on it and we painted it a nice warm beige color, we put tile in the entry way, carpet on the stairs, and installed a new banister, which I love, no swirly hearts, much more modern...

The Kitchen

Before:After:

Oh, the Kitchen... where to start. There was so much work to do, and so much of it my dear hubby had to do, my mom and I tried to peel up the back splash, the glass tile floor, but we couldn't even budge one tile... the kitchen had red brick back splash with black tar behind it, very pretty, old light fixtures with millions of cobwebs, yucky appliances that just had to go, black glass tile laid on half of the floor, crusty carpet on the other half that was laid over layers of vinyl (which had to be torn out also), and a sliding glass door that didn't close, how safe!

We started by renting a tile lifter from the Depot. Tyson used this for the glass tile on the floor, and the lovely back splash. We laid beautiful tile throughout the entire kitchen, installed a new sliding glass door, new black appliances, travertine back splash, a new sink faucet (the old one leaked), and beautiful new light fixtures. Thankfully the cupboards were like-new Kitchenmaid cabinets and the counter top was also fairly new, its Corian brand, and we kept both, just needed some deep cleaning, but they actually are pretty nice... so that's the kitchen!

The Living Room

Before:

After:

Probably one of the rooms/areas that needed the least amount of work. There was popcorn ceiling, complete with glitter flecks throughout the entire house, minus the kitchen. Once that was down, my cousin textured the whole ceiling, and then we primered and painted everything. The carpet came out, way too many animals stains for us. We had to primer the sub-floor, the stains had soaked through the carpet.

We kept the fire place. All of the homes in the neighborhood have a similar rock fireplace. For right now it works... we plan to tear the rock out eventually, like next year, maybe this winter, and install a gas log fireplace with crown molding... but for now, its not so bad.

So there are some of the updates of the bank repo that is slowly becoming our home. Its a challenge, but it definitely gives us a project. Our neighborhood is doing a clean-up where you just set stuff at the street and they hall it away, so 6 pine trees have been chopped down, and I'm pruning the plum tree that is growing out of control tomorrow. Its definitely come a long way, as you can see from the pictures.

Also, about going private, I'm going to give it another week or so, so just let me know, if you already haven't. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend, can't wait to get to my pruning, love Dani.